


Ghost of You

by orphan_account



Category: overwatch
Genre: Boys being sad, Cas made me sad so I make you all sad., M/M, My First Work, super sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-09 03:09:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13472457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Blackwatch Commander Gabriel Reyes is MIA, assumed dead.Jesse Reyes-McCree has to tell this news to his mother-in-law.





	1. A Grave Sadness

A picture sat in calloused hands as dark eyes looked at the white door. A door he had entered happily a thousand times. The knock still rung in the cowboy's hand when a woman, dark and beautiful, answered. Crows feet decorated her eyes, but not much past that showed her age. She grinned some, pulling Jesse into her home. 

"Mijo, it is wonderful to see you! What's the occasion?" Her voice was cheery and bright, but the occasion for Jesse's being here was anything but. He smiled sadly. 

"Hey, mamá-."

"Where is Gabriel?" She looked past him in hopes of seeing her son, perhaps late from the transport. Gabe had a habit of being silent as a mouse, and no one knew it better than his own mother. "Come on, mi hijo, quit your hiding." Jesse choked down some emotion before speaking up.

"Actually, Gabe ain't here. He uh-." Tears Jesse promised wouldn't exist spilled forth. "He's gone." The woman stared in disbelief a moment, numb to her emotions for a long while. She could only stare at Jesse as he cried, not wanting to believe this was real. 

"Gabriel always makes it through. He must have been found after you left-"

"No. I was part of the search team. We turned over every bit of rubble that was there. The base went up in flames and he wasn't found." His hands wrung at his hat as he tried to collect himself. The woman before him was quiet as the loss of her son sunk in. 

"Dios mio, this can't be true. Jesse, tell me it isn't true." She looked him in the eye and he only knew to tug her into a hug. They broke down together, gripping one another tightly as they let emotions overtake them. When Gabriel's mother pulled away, she held tightly to Jesse's prosthetic. She spun the light gold band that adorned his finger carefully. "The world is cruel to take a husband and a son." 

Jesse could only agree. He was invited inside, an offer he happily accepted. He offered her the photo in his hands, a picture of Gabriel, Genji, and himself. "I want you to have this. I can't look at it without sobbin' something fierce and he was your son." He sat on the couch, looking at the woman before him. She took the picture, running a hand over the glossy finish. 

"Thank you, mijo." Her voice was soft as she looked into the image. It was taken only a year ago, after an incredibly successful mission. He and Gabriel were hugging and laughing, while Genji cheered in the background. Jesse couldn't even glance at the photo without crying. She turned her attention to Jesse, eyes sharp with pain. "Please stay here tonight."

"Crystal-."

"Please Jesse. You need someone around as much as I do." She looked the cowboy in the eyes and he deflated.

"I'll stick around for a few days but I don't wanna be a burden. Soon as I get to be too much, kick me out or put me to work." She smiled sadly, shaking her head. 

"Always willing to work for a keep he has been given." She set a hand on his arm. "Let me make you some coffee." 

"Thank you, ma'am." 

"We have talked about this. You can call me mamá, mijo." She smiled weakly, pushing herself to her feet. She moved slowly, but confidently. Jesse replaced his hat on his head, taking the coffee as soon as she was back in the living room. In her other hand sat a book, leather bound and thick. When she moved the cover, it became obvious it was a photo album. The very first picture was Gabe, his mother, his father, and his grandmother standing I front of the house they sat in. 

"This was the first picture of the family when we moved to America. You can't know how happy Gabe was when we told him we were moving here. He learned English as soon as he could, and even that wasn't fast enough for him." Jesse smiled, looking over the picture. While it looked different from the war hardened man he'd married, he loved to see the little boy so happy. She pointed to another image, Gabe's father in his army garb. Gabe, still very young, wore his cap with a grin. 

"Yer husband was a handsome fella." 

"So was yours." She smiled some. "He had just come back from a tour of duty. Gabe looked up to him like no other. He was so proud of his papá, knowing he was 'fighting bad guys'." She sighed softly, her eyes soft and sad. "It was why he wanted to join the military." The next picture she pointed out was Gabriel in a suit, standing next to a rather sharply dressed man. "His senior prom. His date was so nervous to meet us. It was rather cute, actually." She laughed lightly. "It was their first real date and the poor boy was nervous."

"Gabe was a hell of a man. I would be nervous if I'd gotten the chance to take him to prom." He chuckled softly, looking over each image. The next that caught his eye had him in it. It was the first time he had shown up in this house. It was an embarrassing image, he looked awkward and uncomfortable in it. He held his hat in his hands, acting like if he touched anything in any room, he would find a way to break it.

"This was a wonderful day. My sweet Gabi, he hadn't stopped talking about you for months! We were so excited to meet you." Crystal smiled softly, setting a hand on the other's knee, careful and sweet. "When I finally did meet you, I knew you were the one. Mostly because Gabriel kept making sure you were okay, giving you little kisses. He wanted you happy." She sighed softly, turning the page. The both of them got choked up, and Jesse gripped tightly at his serape. He stared at the image, tears collecting in his eyes. Two sharply dressed men stood at the altar, grinning like fools and staring at each other like they were the only ones on the planet.

"Our wedding." 

She nodded some, grabbing for her son-in-law's hand. "It was such a beautiful affair. I was so happy for you both." A smile crossed sad features. "I only wish his father had been there. He would have been so proud. He would have loved you, Jesse." The cowboy smiled sadly. They were just two broken hearted people who lost the loves of their lives to war. 

The next images went by easier. A sleeping Gabe, party decorations strewn over him with a 'Happy Birthday' lovingly hung over his head. Jesse and Crystal getting into a heated snowball fight the first time enough snow collected in L.A. Jesse climbing to ridiculous heights to decorate a palm tree for Christmas. They finally came to the end of the album and Crystal slid the new photo into a pristine, empty slip. 

"Can I get you something to help you sleep? Tea, bourbon?" Jesse laughed warmly. 

"Tea sounds lovely, mamá." He gave her a wink, and she winked back, knowing to slip a bit of whiskey into the tea. If anyone knew him, it was the only sense of a mother he could remember. 

Jesse glanced around, feeling at home for the first time since the base had come down. Since he'd lost his husband. But left to his own devices, he began to fret.

Would he last without Gabriel? The man had been his rock, his world since he'd busted Deadlock. He had cared more about his commander than he did his own life. He would have taken a thousand bullets dedicated for the man. But he couldn't take death away, no matter how much he wanted to. 

He stared at the images around him. Pictures of Gabe, from childhood to adulthood, decorated the walls. He paused, looking at the man that adorned the walls. He wasn't ready. He wasn't ready for that happy man, the man he had seen get a little too into bad movies, the man who could drive his recruits to the brink just to bring them back with all the care in the world, he wasn't ready for that man to be dead.

When Crystal returned with the spiked teas, Jesse was gone.

He took off into the night, looking at the snow. Tears collected on his cheeks as he moved toward the cemetery. There had been no intentions of holding a funeral. 'No body, we will just give him a memorial in his home town.' Overwatch didn't give a shit. He was in such a frenzy he didn't recognize that something followed him.

He only stopped once he stumbled onto his grave. Not even with a headstone, just a marker. He collapsed, staring at the little piece of plastic. That was the only thing they could give his husband. A man who gave everything and anything to the organization got nothing in return. Just a sentiment of a grave. They hadn't found his body, so there was nothing. This was just a plot of land that meant nothing. But Jesse still stared at it like it would give him the answers he so desperately sought.

"Gabe... Please come back.." Despite his begging, he knew it would never come. He knew that the only man he'd ever fucking loved was gone. 

 

Darkness stared inwards at Jesse, taking in the scene. The cowboy sobbed over an empty patch of grass until he fell to sleep. It was almost poetic. He fell asleep beside the man that loved him. A darkened form emerged from the shadows, scooping the man into his arms. Black clouds swirled around their forms as something somber as death itself trudged through the light snow that fell. Heh. It was Jesse's favorite time, when snow fell in Los Angeles. He moved toward the home Jesse had run from, and he pushed himself through the window. It had been Gabriel's room, when he lived with his parents. The creature set Jesse down and kissed his forehead carefully. A hand, burned but healing, reached down to brush over his cheek. A golden wedding band glinted in the faint streetlight before a noise pushed the man toward the window once more. 

"Goodbye, mí corazon." 

And with that, Gabriel was gone.


	2. Old Fools Come Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack 'Soldier: 76' Morrison is out in the world when a gunshot wound to the lung incapacitates him. He encounters something he thinks he never should have.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all this was supposed to be a one chapter thing but I loved it too much so here's some war buddy interactions.

Gunfire tattered the wall Soldier: 76 hid behind, and he returned it. The old rifle tat-tat-tatted away, a familiar noise. His breathing was ragged as the last of his enemies fell. A hand was pressed to the wound in his chest and he glanced down at his biotic field. Busted, but still functional. 

He set the field down, soaking up the feeling of a false fix. Maybe the bleeding would stop, but the wound wouldn't seal. All that mattered was the bleeding in his lung stopped. 

Silence landed and he held the rifle tight to his chest. The visor clicked from his face, landing on the ground. The world blinked out of view, but air rushed to his face. Exactly what he needed. 

A scrape dragged across gravelly ground and he flinched. Heavy steps landed in front of him and he darted for his visor to find it wasn't there. The heavy presence loomed, and a boot bore down on his thigh. He growled out in pain, digging his fingers into the assailant's calf. There was a near silent utterance above him, simply the word 'stop'. The weight went from immobilizing to crushing and he was prompt in letting his leg go. 

The foot lifted from him, and he could feel the other being move closer. Horrible feelings of dread spread over him and he stared up. No light met his eyes, but he could still stare the person down. 

He was prepared for the worst, as he always was. He could handle something digging into his eyes. He could handle another shell going into his skin. The only thing he hadn't been prepared to handle was what happened. 

A hand rested on his cheek with all the tenderness in the world. There was something shifting about the way it felt, like the skin itself was moving. He shuddered under the touch, feeling it move along the scarred skin like a cloud. He wanted it to end, though he wanted that feeling to last. 

There was no honest indicator the thing above him was human, or even alive. The hand was cold to the touch, there was a deathly stillness to the presence, and Jack couldn't hear breathing. He felt he should run, shoot the thing in the chest and keep going. But he didn't. He could head butt the the thing, grab his visor, and go. But he didn't be stayed frozen beneath the heavy presence that loomed above him. 

They stayed in this standstill for too long. Jack flinched as he felt the weight of something fall to his chest, but it was familiar. The presence lifted and dropped something into his lap. "Tell him," a voice said, one that chilled Jack to the bone because he _knew_ that voice. 

Blind grasp bumped around until he found it had been his visor that was dropped on him. He fumbled and clicked it black into place, his vision flickering back into view as a shadow turned the corner. He has no energy to chase it, no will. He looked down at what was placed around his neck, finding a pair of dog tags. One read out Jesse McCree, 'Reyes' scratched sloppily in place of 'McCree' like Jack had told him he didn't have to do. The second tag made him suck in breath, feeling a punch to the stomach that hadn't happen. 

Gabriel Reyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do y'all want more from this? Because I have more in me but I really really don't want to go through the hassle if no one wants more.


End file.
